Mike Matheny and the Cardinals are down 1-0 in their Division Series against the Nationals. / Jeff Roberson, AP

by John Perrotto, Special for USA TODAY Sports

by John Perrotto, Special for USA TODAY Sports

ST. LOUIS -- Mike Matheny led a rather charmed existence in his first regular season as the St. Louis Cardinals' manager.

He seamlessly replaced the legendary Tony La Russa by guiding the Cardinals to a spot in the postseason a year after they won the World Series. Matheny was also able to win despite franchise icon Albert Pujols bolting to the Los Angeles of Anaheim as a free agent last December.

However, the former Cardinals catcher made a decision Sunday that enabled the Washington Nationals to rally for a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Busch Stadium on pinch-hitter Tyler Moore's two-run single in the eighth inning.

St. Louis led 2-1, but Washington had runners on second and third with two outs when Nationals manager Davey Johnson sent left-handed hitting Chad Tracy up to pinch-hit for winning pitcher Ryan Mattheus and face Mitchell Boggs, the Cardinals' top set-up man who had an outstanding 2.21 ERA in 78 regular-season games.

Matheny countered by bringing in lefty reliever Mark Rzepczynski. Johnson then called Tracy back and sent up Moore, a right-handed hitting rookie. Moore flared a two-run single into right field for the game-winning hit.

"I had faith if they did make a move to remove Tracy from the game that Zep would be able to get out one of their young right-handed pinch-hitters and it didn't work for us," Matheny said.

Johnson said he thought Matheny would stick with Boggs in that situation.

"I track these things and Boggs always pitches the eighth inning for them," Johnson said. "I didn't expect to see (Rzepczynski) in that situation. I liked the matchup of Tracy against Boggs but I liked the matchup of Moore against the lefty, too."

Game 2 of the best-of-five series is set for 3:37 p.m. ET on Monday with Jordan Zimmermann (12-8, 2.94 in the regular season) starting for the Nationals against St. Louis left-hander Jaime Garcia (7-7, 3.92). The series then shifts to Nationals Park on Wednesday.

The backfiring of Matheny's strategy was part of a frustrating afternoon for the Cardinals, coming two days after they beat the Braves 6-3 in Atlanta in the first-ever winner-take-all Wild Card game.

Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez, who led the major leagues with 21 wins in the regular season, walked seven in five innings. However, the Cardinals managed just two runs off the left-hander, both in the second inning on a bases-loaded wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Jon Jay.

The Cardinals had a chance to pad a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning when they loaded the bases against Craig Stammen with none out. However, Mattheus come on and got Allen Craig to hit into a force out at home play and Yadier Molina to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Nationals then countered with Moore's hit in the next inning.

St. Louis stranded 10 runners and went hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position. That wasted a strong outing by starter Adam Wainwright, who had 10 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings, nine of the whiffs coming on his curveball.

"We put guys in scoring position," Matheny said. "You look at the opportunity in the seventh. We had opportunities to win this and put more than the couple runs that we had up. And we have been very good lately in situations, getting situation hitting done. Today, it just didn't work."

And now the Cardinals must win Monday or face going to Washington down 2-0 and needing to win three games in a row.

"It's so big to win the first game in a five-game series," Nationals first baseman Adam La Roche said. "We have a little cushion now, some margin for error and (the Cardinals) really don't have any."